There is an ever increasing and growing consumer interest in light and low calorie foods and beverages. The growth in light beverages in the past five years has been phenomenal: consumption of light beers are up 350% and low calorie soft drinks are up 58%. In each case, the "light" beverage has far outstripped the growth rate of its "regular" counterpart. In keeping with this interest, the wine industry has recently introduced several low calorie wines.
Low calorie wine has been made by harvesting grapes before muturity when the suger content is less than that required for ordinary grapes. With less sugar, there is less alcohol and consequently, fewer calories. In this process, the grapes must be made into wine very quickly to preserve flavor.